Dear guests of the Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen

We look forward to welcoming you again on 11 May.
Your host Simon Kohler and the team from the Goldenen Sternen

Welcome to Goldener Sternen, the Golden Star Tavern

As soon as you enter the Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen, you will feel that serenity and casual ease are very important to us – and certainly feel welcome right away. We attach great importance to sustainable culinary pleasures, which is why we have created our own 12-metre-long herb bed in our courtyard garden and often use ProSpecieRara products to create our dishes. Our cuisine focuses on innovative fish dishes, but also offers a selection of traditional meat dishes. Experience carefree hours in our historical rooms or, in the warm summer months, on one of our two terraces directly on the Rhine.

We are looking forward to welcome you as our guests.

Opening Hours

Monday until Saturday:
Sunday:

11.30 – 23.30h
11.30 – 22.00h

Hot food in the evening until 22:00

We are looking forward to receiving your reservation.

Restaurant

Our kitchen also prepares various vegan, gluten or lactose-free dishes.

Our Menu Cards

A la Carte

Find your favourite menu.

Kids Menu

For our little guests.

Wines

Take a look into our wine cellar.

Our weekly offer from June 2-7, 2020

Vouchers from the Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen

A present that will give pleasure and is available in any price range!

Banquet & Seminar Events.

Your Event

Banquet & Seminar

Seminar offers

Event Information

We kindly ask you to take notice of our terms and conditions. You will help us in making your event a success - simply the Sternen-way.

Your event on the ferry St. Alban

We are also pleased to arrange your event on the ferry St. Alban called « Wilde Maa », which is located in front of Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen.

History

Our Multifaceted Past

The Gasthof zum Goldenen Sternen (1412) is considered to be the oldest tavern in Basel. Its story is interesting and unique for two reasons: on the one hand, the Sternen was not always located where it is today; on the other one, it has always been called Sternen, but for quite some time not Goldener Sternen or Golden Star.

For centuries, the Sternen stood in the Aeschenvorstadt, the youngest of Basel's five suburbs, which was laid out around the middle of the 14th century. The suburb ze Eschemars Thor, the Aeschentor or Aeschen Gate, quickly expanded in the original garden grounds. For Basel, the Aeschentor became the gateway to and from the Jura region.

The Goldener Sternen was built long before Basel joined the Swiss Confederation in 1501. However, this was not the name of the tavern when the envoys of the ten cantons are thought to have met here for their first welcome drink. At that time, the tavern was a Herrenwirtschaft exclusively catering to men and called zem swartzen Sternen. The property was first documented in 1349. The Sternen was one of the 13 Herrenwirtschaften that had tavern rights. With this privilege, guests could be offered three kinds of wine and a meal. Originally, it consisted of two properties, the front building looking on the street and the rear building looking on an alley, the Sternengässlein.

That is why 19th-century sources still speak of the vordern und hintern schwarzen Sternen, the front and rear buildings, that is. This name was retained until 1873, when it was given its “golden” nickname.

In the form in which the tavern was known until it was relocated, it may only have existed from the 15th or even 16th centuries, for during the conflagration of 1417, most of the city from Streitgasse to the gates of St. Alban and Aeschen fell prey to the fire.

The building was a monument of unadulterated Gothic architecture with its characteristic, broad façade, pretty arrangement of the windows and well-proportioned gate, which barely allowed two-wheeled carts pulled by a single horse to enter, and with its beautiful beams in the passageway. The interior also had some quite remarkable features: the warm wooden panelling of the halls, the oak doors decorated with brass fittings and, above all, the delicate Renaissance column in the hall on the first floor.

A nice story tells us about the time in 1697, when Johann Eglinger of the Hirzen and Friedrich Lüdi of the Schwarzer Sternen fought over an ordinary rubbish pit along the wall dividing the two properties and the two brought their fight all the way to the Court of Five responsible for building issues.
In 1964, when the municipal authorities decided to broaden the main street, the fate of the tavern on Aeschenvorstadt 44 seemed to be sealed. But cautious as people were, the decision had already been made several years before to carry out any necessary demolition work in an extremely careful manner; after all, the historical value of the building was well known. It was only during these works that, behind the late Gothic façade, surprising, older and valuable wall and ceiling paintings on plaster, baroque painted wooden beam ceilings and a coffered ceiling inlaid with stars came to light, which are unparalleled in Basel in terms of quality and condition.

Thereupon, all parts of the building worth preserving were carefully dismantled, preserved, and numbered by the Basel Preservation-of-Monuments Department. In 1973/74, the Sternen was re-erected in the so-called Dalbeloch, on the site of the Letzistube restaurant formerly there from 1859 till 1967. Just a few steps away is Letziplatz, a square adorned by a piece of the old Basel city wall. Next to it is the old paper mill that, today, is used as a museum. In 1993, the Sternen was renovated and, after a five-month renovation period, the tavern met the latest gastronomic standards. In addition, historically false elements such as the pseudo-baroque ceiling in the foyer of the first floor were removed.

Historycally Interesting Parts

The Restaurant
Coffered ceiling with inlaid stars from the 17th century,
from the second floor of the old tavern.
Mural paintings with pigeons and curtain motifs from the 18th century,
from the hall on the first floor of the old tavern.

Letzistube – Letzi Hall
Baroque painted wooden beam ceiling from the 17th century;
original wall cladding on the second floor of the old tavern.
Arabesques mounted on glass, original paintings from the 16th century;
from the first floor of the old tavern.

Foyer on the 1st Floor
Lintel stones of the E.E. Zunft zu Gartnern, the house of the gardeners’ guild on Gerberstrasse 38, probably originally placed above the entrance to the guild hall, before 1460; same type of arabesques as in Letzistube.

Sternen Hall
Baroque ceiling painted with animals, fruit medallions, and vines;
end of the 17th century; from various upper-floor rooms of the old tavern.
Tripartite Gothic stepped windows.

Vaulted cellar
The vaulted cellar is suitable for the most varied and enjoyable
banquets and offers space for up to 80 guests. Modular lighting and
mirrors on the walls provide the room with its highly special character.
The hall can be directly and comfortably reached by lift.